
Health Department’s budget has been cut by R4,4 billion for 2023/2024.
The National Department of Health’s budget allocation for 2023–2024 has decreased by R4,4 billion, from R64.5 billion in 22–23 to R60.1 billion.
This, according to health minister Joe Phaahla, is a result of the suspension of conditional grants designated for the fight against COVID-19.
The minister claims that both the pandemic and load shedding have harmed the economy in his speech regarding the budget vote in the National Assembly on Tuesday in Parliament.
“Our budget vote takes place at a time when our country’s economy is not doing well following the COVID-19 pandemic, and now load shedding. The financing of public health is seriously negatively affected by this situation,”
“Even though the R4.4 billion decline can be attributed to the discontinuation of conditional grants that were allocated for the fight against COVID-19, including vaccination, the fact of the matter is that there is not even inflation adjustment and there are also reductions in allocations to existing programmes.” Phaahla said.
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Phaahla also stated that under the National Health Insurance (NHI) grants the department has set aside R1.4 billion, which will be implemented on agreed projects from PHC to tertiary services.
“We believe that the current two-tier system, one system for the rich and one for the poor, is unsustainable. We also believe that health should be a common good and not for profit, especially at the point of service.
“The NHI bill, which is currently in your hands, is simply an instrument for the realisation of the goal of equity.”
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